Game of Perception
by Keepitlocked
Summary: Sabina Pleasure realised she was in deep shit. Trashed her home? Check. Lied to the the authorities? Check. Killed a man? Check. Sabina Pleasure now realised that she needed to get her shit together. Lied to the authorities about killing a man and trashing her home? Fucking check. Yep, everything was going perfectly according to her plan.


Chapter One

The first thing that clued Sabina Pleasure in to the fact that she was not alone was the tripping of her silent alarm, indicating that someone was now in her home.

She'd been casually scrolling on her phone, jumping between her many social media apps, when she received a notification of the aforementioned tripping of her alarm. A state of the art system that Alex Rider had installed for her.

Immediately sending the MI6 superspy a message, she rolled out of her bed as quietly as possible, crouching low as she warily watched the door. Sabina thought about the secret compartment in every room in the house that stored a weapon of some kind. Her bedroom claimed the typical gun and ammunition. All registered to her, of course. She hesitated, however, to use it, as she suspected the intruder in her home wasn't your everyday home garden intruder.

Deciding that enough time had passed for Alex to have replied, she checked her phone.

Can you handle this?

Sabina knew then that Alex was busy, the probability that he was in a life threatening situation was high. In a quick decision, she texted back a single word.

Yes.

Alex replied, Make sure they can pin nothing on you. I'll be done in a few hours.

Already, she was formulating a plan in her head. How was she going to take down this intruder?

She slid back into bed, rolling again and making sure she made some noise as she imitated a normal person getting out of bed. Making her way out of her door, she made sure she had no stealth in mind, no way to make the intruder in her home suspicious of her actions. Sabina padded down the stairs, stepping in the places she knew were purposefully built to creak. Flipping on the light and entering the kitchen, she gave a yawn and rubbed her stomach under her shirt. She turned the kettle on and pulled out a cup and tea bag. To the intruder watching her, she knew she looked as though she was just making some late night tea.

Her floor plan was an open space. From the front door to the back of her house, it was the living 'room', dining area, kitchen and then a separation for the laundry room and bathroom. Not much hiding places for the intruder. In fact, Sabina knew that any intruder worth their salt would be hard pressed to keep out of her sight once she was down here.

Pouring the boiling water into her cup, she let it sit while she walked over to the lounge space and picked up the remote, flipping to a channel that played movies 24/7. Rubbing her eyes, she started to head back to her tea when the intruder made their move. Seeing the fist that was flying toward her head, Sabina stepped back, moving her head aside so it just glanced her skull. Still hurt like a bitch but she need to have evidence of a beating. She scrambled back with wide eyes, as though unable to comprehend what was happening and started to let loose a scream when the intruder barrelled forward and covered her mouth with a gloved hand. The man – she could tell by his stature and almost overwhelming strength – delivered an almost debilitating blow to her abdomen, but she bowed her body inwards, driving his effect to lose some of his momentum and become only a painful, but bearable, blow.

She pushed with technique, also managing to get in a punch under his chin, forcing a grunt out of him because it probably hurt. Faking a sob, Sabina glanced around as she turned and ran, picking up one of the ornaments that adorned her house and throwing it at the intruder. He batted it to the side as easily as swatting a fly and kept prowling forward. He was underestimating her as a distressed and terrified woman. She was playing it off beautifully. Grabbing more things to throw at him, she finally made a another run, deciding to tip over chairs and keep throwing things in his path, hoping to slow him down. She felt him coming closer as she started up the stairs and then a steel arm wrapped around her waist, picking her up effortlessly before she was lobbed through the air onto the floor.

Air left her lungs and before she could recover, the tip of his boot drove into her ribcage. Summoning up her reserve strength, she scissored her legs in a move that got the huge man to topple over and she clambered to her feet, hunched over as her ribs throbbed in pain. He may have broken a bone or two, but she calmed down and completely severed the pain from her mind for the moment. A large hand grabbed her arm and tightened, tight enough to make her believe a bruise would form in a few hours.

The quiet _snick_ was loud in her home and she reeled back, but the intruder sliced into her upraised, defensive arm.

Better her arm than her stomach.

Bringing up her knee, she aimed to make sure he would never be able to engage in sexual intercourse again, but he moved at the last minute. However, by the hiss in between his teeth, and the slight buckle of his right leg, she knew the hit to his thigh had deadened the area. He was getting angry, and that was what she wanted, so she kicked him in the abdomen with some force. He stumbled back a few steps and Sabina made a calculated backtrack, where it looked like she tripped and fell over. It was a prime opportunity that he wouldn't miss and Sabina knew the man was eager to get this over and done with.

But when he threw the blade in his hand aside, she realised he wanted something else. Had a different agenda than what she'd thought.

As he lunged for her, Sabina's mind made a split second decision.

Sticking the heel of her palm out, she used his momentum to help as she let the forces work in her favour. With a resounding snap, she hit him square in the nose, in such a position that she knew the bone would pierce his brain.

As the dead weight – literal – of the estimated two hundred pound man fell on her, she sucked in a breath as the pain she'd ignored began to radiate from all over her body. Gingerly, she made her way out from under him, albeit it was a definite struggle and stared down at the body. It was time for the next phase of her plan.

Summoning up tears, she got into character and tore out of her house, screaming, crying and calling for help. Her eyes tracked the black car that drove out of the neighbourhood, making note that it had no visible license plate. Her screaming had the lights turning on in houses up and down the street. But it was her next door neighbour who reacted the fastest. The father of two rushed outside, bat in hand, eyes looking around wildly for the screaming wail of a woman. When her eyes found him, she starts crying even harder and Jeremy Jones rushed over to her, gathering her up in his arms and soothing her down as other people begin to come out of their houses to investigate.

Victoria Jones, Jeremy's wife, ushered her kids back inside, telling her oldest daughter – a sixteen year old Lily – to call the police. She then came to stand beside her husband, crooning soft words to Sabina, when she noticed the knife wound on her arm. "Sabina," she said firmly. "Tell us what's happened."

The growing crowd, several of which have already called the police, leaned in with concern. Sabina Pleasure was a very likeable girl. Nice, polite, funny and courageous. They were all very worried about what had happened to the young woman.

Shudders breaking through her body, Sabina let more tears fall as she pointed to her house, its door still gaping wide open. Many of the neighbours shivered as it showed an utterly dark entrance, with only the occasional flash of grey and blue as the television is still on. "A-A man a-attacked me-e," she sobbed. "I-I put up a fight and I-I fell and then h-he was –" More tears.

"It's okay," Victoria said, taking Sabina from her husband's arms. "You got away and you're safe now."

"George, Nathan," Jeremy barked out to the other two men, one also had the rationality to grab a weapon, the other a beefy, muscular man who was known to practice boxing on a daily basis.

The three men move as if to go the house when Victoria stopped her husband. "Jeremy, leave this to the police."

He swore and the neighbours flinched. Jeremy Jones had never sworn in front of them before. "I'm not leaving a potential murderer alone in my neighbourhood. Especially when I've got you and the kids to think of."

At that, his wife said nothing, and he took it as leave to do what he was going to do in the first place. Sabina watched through her tears as Jeremy, George and Nathan slowly and cautiously made their way into her house.

Less than five minutes later, two patrol cars entered the street, their flashing lights almost blinding.

The women had gathered around a placated Sabina, at times hugging and patting her, or stroking her hair in comfort. There were more people, watching from afar, all over the street, having heard the commotion and curious about what was happening.

An officer – she pegged him in his late twenties to early thirties – approached her, with an older man. "Excuse me, ma'am?" the younger officer said. "Do you mind telling us what's happened?"

Sabina decided to begin crying again and managed to retell what happened in a brief summary. "I-I think I killed him." She let the tears fall harder.

Detective Jonathan O'Hallaron blinked. He'd introduced himself and his partner sometime during the conversation. "Excuse me?"

"H-he jumped on top of m-me," she stuttered. "I threw m-my hand out to protect mys-self, and I hit him in th-the face and he fell on top of m-me. He wouldn't m-move and that's when I-I got a-away."

Movement caught her eye and she watched as Jeremy and the other men, including two grim faced cops, came out of the house. "I didn't really kill him, did I?" She asked with a slight tremor to her voice, distress evident. "I w-was just trying to p-protect myself."

The women surrounding her pinned Jon with glares, who only looks bemused and concerned as the pretty, young woman shakily wiped away her tears. That's when he saw the knife injury and, alarmed, he asked the crowd for a moment. Dispersing with disgruntled looks, the neighbours hovered nearby in case their lovable neighbour needed them. His partner mediated them.

Crouching down so he wasn't quite towering over her, he asked cautiously, "Do you need a rape kit?" Inwardly, he winced. He was pretty new at this detective stuff. Dealing with the victims was so not his forte.

Sabina hiccuped and met him with solemn eyes. "I would've needed one if I hadn't gotten away when I had. He beat me up a fair bit, but otherwise... well, I'm not dead." She gave a watery laugh.

Relief fell through him, because thank god she didn't need a rape kit. But he was sure she was now in a state of shock – she was beginning to shiver uncontrollably and she had that familiar glazed over look of someone who's mind couldn't take what was happening so they were beginning to check out.

"Come on, we'll get you to a hospital to look at the extent of your injuries, then I'll get your statement and full story there, okay?" He noted with more relief that the paramedics and ambulance were here. Handing the traumatised female over to them, he walked over to where his partner, Peter Sullivan, was talking with the other policemen on the scene.

"What's the verdict?" one of them asked.

"She was grabbed on the first floor," he stated. "but she fought back, which surprised the intruder. During the fight, she fell over and the intruder jumped for her. She put her hand out to protect herself, but somehow managed to seriously injure the guy instead. She escaped and her neighbours heard her yelling and came out to investigate" Jon nodded toward the house, in which the crime scene unit was now taping and entering."He dead?"

"As a doorknob." Peter said, deadpan. "Can't say for sure how until CSU have combed over that place, but he looked pretty dead to me. And the place was trashed."

"She's been beaten up pretty bad, but she'll survive."

Silence encroached on their circle.

"She's just a kid," one of the officers suddenly muttered with a vicious curse. "She shouldn't be having to go through all this fucked up shit."

Jon murmured his agreement as he watched the medics secure the girl in the back before climbing into the front and driving off. Shaking his head, he turned away and trudged into the house, pulling out a pair of gloves.

This was going to be a long night.

* * *

**Author's note: THOUGHTS? yay or nay? TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THIS BC IDK**

**I may delete it later on bc not sure about this story. Wrote it in less than a day, so its very rough.**

**P.S I really hate doing dialogue for authority figures, if you haven't already noticed how bad it is. Actually, dialogue for anybody, really.**


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